Varys' Dead Hand

I liked the episode 805. On second watch I liked it less lol. One thing that took it down for me was the uncharacteristic recklessness of Varys. Perhaps Varys thought he was running out of time to save the city. In retrospect his sense of urgency was justified. On the other hand a dead Varys can't do anything to help anyone. Or can he? Why did Varys burn the second letter? He simply hid the first one when the little came to report to him. Why burn the note when he already knows why they're coming for him. And then he conspicuously took off his ring. Was he just leaving something behind to prove that he was there, that he tried? Or what if he left a message for his spies. Back in the Cold War the Dead Hand was a system designed to automatically launch our nuclear arsenal in the event of a Soviet assault. It guaranteed that a nuclear war would be the end of both powers. Not confident this is the case, but I would be really cool if we saw that Varys' contingency plan play out in the next episode. There's probably not enough time left to develop anymore plot.

Comments

I like the idea of the rings being in a specific spot meaning something. He hid the note the first time because he didn't know who was at the door. He burned the second note because he had already shot his shot with Jon and he could very clearly hear the boots of soldiers coming so he knew what was about to happen.

I never considered that the second letter he burned may have been a response from someone, like agreeing to send troops to back Jon. Idk. Probably not. Who is left w troops to send, how much time passed between Tyrion talking to him and his execution. Who the fuck knows.